Bulgaria detains 43 undocumented migrants on Austria-bound train
Bulgarian Border Police detained 43 undocumented foreigners who were on train from Turkey ultimately bound for Austria, the Interior Ministry said on March 10 2016.
The ministry said that on the night of March 9, Border Police at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint at the Turkish border saw people on the wagon of a goods train entering from Turkey.
The train was made up of empty car transport wagons. On the upper platform of the last wagon, 43 people were found – eight men, 11 women and 24 children, all without identification documents.
Twenty-eight said that they were from Iraq and 15 said that they were Syrians, the ministry said.
The train was en route from Istanbul through Bulgaria and Romania to Austria. Those taken into custody said that they had boarded the train at the station in the Turkish city of Edirne.
The adults had been arrested and their identities were being checked, while the children had been taken to a special shelter, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said.
On February 29, Bulgaria announced a similar detention of undocumented foreigners, when 27 people were found on a train from Turkey to Austria passing through Bulgaria.
(Photo: Interior Ministry press centre)
